Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

We collect and process personal data that you voluntarily provide to us, as well as certain information that is collected automatically when you interact with our Website. The types of information we may collect include:

We do not intentionally collect special category data (such as information about health, race, or religious beliefs) through this Website. Please do not submit such information unless it is strictly necessary and you have been asked to do so by us in a secure, appropriate context.

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information only where we have a lawful basis to do so and for clearly defined purposes related to providing and improving our accounting and tax consultancy services. These purposes include:

• Providing our services: To respond to your enquiries, provide proposals, deliver bookkeeping, financial reporting, auditing, and tax advisory services, and manage our professional relationship with you.
• Managing bookings and appointments: To process bookings made via our Booking page, confirm appointments, send reminders, and reschedule or cancel consultations where necessary.
• Operating and improving the Website: To administer and secure our Website, analyse how visitors use our pages (including the Services and individual service pages), and enhance the user experience.
• Customer support and communication: To communicate with you about your queries submitted via the Contact Us page, respond to requests or complaints, and provide service updates.
• Marketing and informative communications: Where permitted, to send you relevant updates, newsletters, or information about our services that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of such communications at any time.
• Compliance and risk management: To comply with legal, regulatory, and professional obligations, including anti-money-laundering checks, record-keeping, financial reporting, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
• Protecting our business: To protect the security and integrity of our systems, prevent fraud and misuse, and enforce our Terms and Conditions.

Legal Basis for Processing

RURAL ACCOUNTING processes personal data in accordance with applicable UK data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Depending on the context, we rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

• Contract: Where processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract. This includes processing data to provide accounting, reporting, auditing, or tax services and to manage bookings and consultations.
• Consent: Where you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose, such as receiving marketing communications or the use of certain non-essential cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Legal obligation: Where processing is necessary for us to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, such as record-keeping requirements, tax reporting, and anti-money-laundering regulations.
• Legitimate interests: Where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include securing our Website, improving the quality of our services, or defending legal claims.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for those purposes.

Sharing and Disclosure

We treat your personal information as confidential and do not sell your data. However, we may share your information with carefully selected third parties in the following circumstances:

• Service providers: With trusted third-party suppliers who provide services on our behalf, such as IT hosting, cloud storage, email delivery, appointment scheduling tools, analytics services, and professional advisers. These providers are contractually required to protect your data and may only process it in accordance with our instructions.
• Professional advisers: With our insurers, bankers, auditors, accountants, and legal advisers, where necessary to obtain professional advice or manage business risks.
• Regulators and authorities: With law enforcement agencies, regulators, public bodies, or courts where we are legally required to do so, or where disclosure is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
• Corporate transactions: In the context of a business sale, merger, reorganisation, or similar transaction, where your data may be transferred to the relevant third parties subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Where we transfer personal data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses approved by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), to protect your information.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In determining appropriate retention periods, we consider the nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process your data, and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

• Enquiry and booking data submitted via our Website is typically retained for up to 2 years from the date of our last interaction, unless it becomes part of a client file.
• Client records and supporting documentation related to accounting, reporting, auditing, or tax services are generally retained for up to 7 years after the end of the engagement, or longer where required by law or professional regulations.
• Marketing contact details are kept until you unsubscribe or otherwise object to processing for marketing purposes.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete, anonymise, or otherwise remove it from our systems.

Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. Subject to certain conditions and exemptions, these include:

• Right of access: To request confirmation of whether we process your personal data and, if so, to receive a copy of that data together with certain information about how it is used.
• Right to rectification: To request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
• Right to erasure: To request the deletion or removal of your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it, also known as the "right to be forgotten".
• Right to restrict processing: To ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if you contest its accuracy or object to our use of it.
• Right to object: To object to processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests, and to object at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to data portability: To request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on consent to process your personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before withdrawal.
• Right to lodge a complaint: You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in the "Contact Information" section below. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights).

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to provide core functionality, enhance your browsing experience, and help us understand how visitors use our pages and services.

What are cookies? Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to provide information to the site owners.

We may use the following categories of cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential for the operation of our Website and enable core functions such as page navigation, secure form submission on the Booking and Contact Us pages, and access to secure areas. The Website cannot function properly without these cookies.
• Performance and analytics cookies: These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our Website by collecting and reporting information anonymously, such as which pages are most frequently visited (for example, the Services or Testimonials pages) and how users move around the site. This information supports improvements to content and navigation.
• Functionality cookies: These cookies allow the Website to remember your choices and preferences (such as language or region) to provide a more personalised experience.

Where required by law, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device. You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings at any time; however, some features of the Website may not function correctly if certain cookies are disabled.

Data Security Measures

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect it against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access.

• Using secure hosting environments and up-to-date security controls for our Website and supporting systems.
• Encrypting data in transit where appropriate and limiting access to personal data to authorised personnel who have a legitimate business need to know.
• Implementing access controls, authentication procedures, and regular review of user permissions.
• Maintaining internal policies, training, and procedures designed to promote data protection and information security best practices.
• Regularly reviewing our security measures and updating them in line with industry standards and technological developments.

While we strive to protect your personal data, no system or transmission of information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for keeping any account details or passwords confidential and for taking reasonable steps to secure your own devices.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our data protection practices, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us using the details below:

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law, our services, or our data processing practices. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically when visiting our Website.